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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25736251">Imitation (is the highest form of flattery)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sneaking_UnicornWitch/pseuds/Oriki-Miitad'>Oriki-Miitad (Sneaking_UnicornWitch)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Onomastics [The Study of Names] [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adjacent to Soft Wars, Clone Shenanigans, Crack, Gen, Names are hard, Not Beta Read, soft, this is really silly</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 01:59:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,055</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25736251</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sneaking_UnicornWitch/pseuds/Oriki-Miitad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Names are important to the clones, they are chosen rather than given. But with an army of millions, it's hard to be unique. And sometimes, you don't want to be.</p><p> </p><p>or, 4 times the Commanders are emulated by the <i>vode</i>, 1 time it's the General.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>None</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Onomastics [The Study of Names] [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888222</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>199</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Imitation (is the highest form of flattery)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is mostly written because I think it’s stupid unlikely that none of the clones share names.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Wolffe stands just outside the hangar, waiting for their three newest troopers to arrive. They were all shinies, straight from Kamino. Too young, he thinks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He hears the whine of the engines cooling and steps into the huge room, waiting for his </span>
  <em>
    <span>vod’ikase</span>
  </em>
  <span> to disembark. They come tripping out, chatting and laughing among themselves, but fall to a hush at attention and salute once they notice him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So, my latest members of the Wolfpack. Welcome to the 104th, gentlemen.” He spots one of the young clones bash against another’s shoulders at his words, and makes a mental note to keep an eye on that one. There was friendly banter, and then there was teasing that went too far. He wouldn’t allow bullying on </span>
  <em>
    <span>his</span>
  </em>
  <span> ship. He asks for their names, and they step forward as they shout them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Crash, Sir!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Weave, Sir!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And, in a far quieter tone, </span>
  <span>“...wolfffe, Sir.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Osik</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Well, that would explain the ribbing. Trying not to let the smile edge into his words, he says, “I’m sorry trooper, I didn’t catch that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My name is Wolfffe, Sir. Or CT-3576.” The poor </span>
  <em>
    <span>vod</span>
  </em>
  <span> looks like he wants to be thrown to a Sarlacc. “Three Fs.” As if that makes it better. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...I see…” Wolffe’s not really sure he does.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, I wasn’t expecting to be sent to the 104th, and everyone tells us stories about your squad shebse and the Wolfpack, and they say names can be something you emulate and…” the clone’s self-preservation instinct seems to have kicked in. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wolffe sends them on their way to their stations, updating the ship manifest with their names. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Three Fs</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he grumbles to himself. Not that he can chide the kid much, he’d only added an extra one and an e to make his name in the first place. It was going to make things difficult though...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The 501st are on Coruscant. Normally, it’s a headache and a half for Fox. Keeping his </span>
  <em>
    <span>vod’ika</span>
  </em>
  <span>’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>di’kut’la shebse</span>
  </em>
  <span> from doing something that would get a) them decommissioned or b) him decommissioned was a task in itself. Tonight might be more of a headache, because he recalled that they’d received new </span>
  <em>
    <span>vode</span>
  </em>
  <span> since they were last on 000. First night on Coruscant was a biggie. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’s studiously ignoring 79s tonight, as if him not seeing any trouble means he won’t have to deal with the fallout. Instead, he’s decided to walk around one of the few garden spaces. There’s a clone in 501 blue that seems to be trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, bent in over himself. Hard to do in 40 kilos of plastoid. He gives the </span>
  <em>
    <span>vod</span>
  </em>
  <span> an upturned nod of recognition and keeps walking. The kid’s still there when he comes back around, and he approaches. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, didn’t fancy 79s with the rest tonight?” he calls out. As he walks closer he sees that the clone was hunched over a datapad, drawing with a stylus. The clone looks up. He’s got his hair about regulation length, no obvious tats. Squeaky clean, unusual for one of Rex’s. Fox sees his head shake. The other clone murmurs an assent when Fox asks if he can sit next to him. From here, he can see the sketch of the trees in the garden. It’s beautiful. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few minutes of comfortable silence, possibly the most time he’s ever spent with a 501st without wanting to hit something (Rex only possibly excepted) Fox asks, “What’s your name, </span>
  <em>
    <span>vod</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...Vhoks.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nope, there it goes. His fists clench as he laughs.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thought of a name yet, ‘64?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His batchmate, Zoom, had been asking this question for cycles and cycles. Every latemeal, the same question. At this rate he was going to suggest that Zoom pick a name for him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Plenty of us ship out without names, Zoom. Just leave it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But as ‘64 says it he feels his eyes drawn to where the Rancor clones are positioning themselves between the youngest </span>
  <em>
    <span>vode</span>
  </em>
  <span> and the worst of the trainers. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He thinks about it in his pod that night, long after lights out. He thinks while sparring, through meals, during heavy weapons training. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Thought of a name yet, ‘64?” Zoom asks, again, at latemeal. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah… Yeah, I think I have,” he mumbles around a mouthful of pudding cup. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Zoom is practically vibrating next to him, a change in routine is never good for him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“My name is Kolt.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What’s your name, sergeant?” Mace asks. He tries to learn everyone’s names and armour markings, but they’d taken on a lot of new faces recently. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“The name’s Blai, General.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mace allows himself a small smile. Force knows Shaak had complained to him about the clone younglings getting stuck in ‘freshers enough times for him to know exactly who this trooper has named himself after.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Glad to have you with us, Blai,” he says as he clasps the man on his pauldron before stepping through the door to where the council is awaiting his holo.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cody paces the small patch of floor in front of the holotable. He’s not sure how he’s going to be able to spin this. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yes, he’s heard the stories from his batch-mates. Even Monnk, off doing god knows what with General Fisto, had commed to say that he’d found out about a clone with Lightning called Monk and could he swap him for one of the SCUBA troopers called ‘411’ even though his designation didn’t have those numbers anywhere near it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was like they were trying to make it </span>
  <em>
    <span>harder</span>
  </em>
  <span> on themselves. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But it’s not something the 212th has had to deal with yet. Not until they’d had a transfer of a couple of </span>
  <em>
    <span>vode</span>
  </em>
  <span> from Gree’s 41st Elite Corps. Cody had known something was up when the tone of Gree’s accompanying notes on one of the files had been nothing but joyous. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>One of the troopers is called Copper. A fairly ordinary name. Except the </span>
  <em>
    <span>vod</span>
  </em>
  <span> has a tattoo of a blue lightsaber on his shoulder blade, and a dyed beard too closely resembling that of their general. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tattoo had been mentioned to Cody after a medical with Needle, the beard was obvious to anyone who saw him without his bucket. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Cody had seen Kenobi’s eyes dance with rare delight when he’d recognised the link.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It’s true, Imitation is the highest form of flattery.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>As Mando'a doesn't natively use F or X, Fox would likely be Vhoks. </p><p>Ponds (CT-411) is the Commander of Lightning Squadron.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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